Same ranch, new country

2/12/1857

The Mexican Cession of 1848 transferred 529,017 square miles of territory to the United States—along with jurisdiction over a legal battle for a league of land left by Vicente Sanchez, who died in 1846. A hand-drawn map, or diseno, of his ranch, along with a claim appealing the division of the land, was filed in 1852 with the California Land Commission, which eventually confirmed the division of the land between Sanchez’s widow and a descendant.